On November 30, 2022, OpenAI, an artificial intelligence research company, released the infamous platform called ChatGPT. The website has been a complete game changer (and a double edged sword) for students writing essays and finishing up their homework. Whether it’s looking for inspiration on how to start writing or trying to find the perfect way to phrase a thought, ChatGPT can do it all. Sadly, it has been very common to see students put zero effort into their work, leaving it all up to the AI robots. At first, while many teachers and supervisors didn’t notice, they slowly but surely started to catch on. Using overly complicated wording and over the top embellishments for essays is just not how college students usually write… right? Well, at least not just any college student. The problem seems to arise when you have students that are really good writers, that don’t shy away from complex vocabulary, and put effort into setting a scene and engaging the reader with their writing, being accused of not actually creating their own work. With this, we can start to see many problems. First of all, the student’s integrity is put on the line, and their capabilities are questioned. Are they truly capable of composing such a thing? Can a college student really be that talented? Second of all, we see that if one student is caught using AI, their classmates’ work then becomes heavily targeted by AI detecting software, which is not foolproof. When it comes to this generation of students and their capabilities, false assumptions and overgeneralizations are far too common.
A specific case of false accusations made against innocent students was reported at Texas A&M Commerce, when a teacher of the Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources Department accused his students of using ChatGPT on their final assignments. Apparently he used ChatGPT itself to identify if his student’s submitted work was generated by artificial intelligence or not, which is something that, according to Ben Collins, a senior reporter at NBC News, cannot be efficiently done yet. On that note, many AI detection tools have been created to help out supervisors and teachers determine if a work was completed by a human or not, yet these have been questioned for their lack of efficiency. Platforms like Turnitin or GPTZero rate the percentage of artificially written content on any piece of work you submit to its platform based on mere assumptions of what looks or sounds like something not written by a human being. According to an article written in The Washington Post, many of these tools have false positives that lead to teachers accusing innocent students of plagiarizing their work. The article goes on to say: “My favorite example of just how imperfect they can be: A detector called GPTZero even claimed the U.S. Constitution was written by AI.” This just goes to show how absurd and untrustworthy these platforms can truly be.
However, to think that the only ones affected by this are either students or writers is wrong. Sadly, editors have also been accused of using artificial intelligence to produce final versions of a revised work for their clients. Nowadays, with the ability to ask ChatGPT to fix grammatical errors, make something coherent, and even change the tone of what you write, the possibilities with this tool seem endless. That is why many who believe that an editor’s job is based solely on this, think that these professionals don’t actually do the work themselves, which invalidates decades of effort, work, and academic preparation. An editor who shared her experience with being accused of using artificial intelligence for a revision on Self-Publishing Review wrote: “[…] I have a Masters with Distinction in Creative Writing for Novels from a top London university. I trained in SEO and PPC, and worked in the media industries for years. I am now an agented author with a book coming out next year. AI did not occur to me as a tool that could help me with work I do every day in my profession.” This just goes to show how innocent people who have given their whole lives to work in these fields, can be heavily affected by false accusations that are not even heavily substantiated. The editor goes on to mention tell-tale signs that a work was completed by AI. They say that oftentimes AI will produce a unique version of what you provide to it, but the AI version will lack the author’s essence and voice. It will sound plain, robotic-like, and very far from what human dialogue or descriptions tend to look like. Additionally, they mention that it is very difficult for an AI platform to complete all of the editing tasks that an editor tends to do in just one sitting. At the end of the day, it is oftentimes easier to just do the work yourself.
The consequences of being accused of using artificial intelligence to complete any type of work, whether it be as a student, writer, or editor, can be completely detrimental and have lasting effects on a person’s life. In the case of a college student, they can face suspension, expulsion, or even lose their scholarship (which is oftentimes the means by which they receive an education in the first place). For a writer, it can mean losing the respect of the literary world and losing credibility plus opportunities when it comes to trying to get your work published. Finally, for editors, it can mean losing the job you’ve prepared so long and given so much of your life for.
I personally am not totally against the use of AI for correcting certain mistakes in writing and enhancing some sections of it, and am sure that many professionals use the platform in their day to day. But accusations of actions such as plagiarism are serious, and should be handled with care. Assumptions shouldn’t be made blindly, and teachers/supervisors should be open to having a conversation with the student/writer/editor to see if there is some truth to their claims after all. Where are the days that good writing was welcomed, praised, and celebrated, rather than questioned and picked apart? How far has AI gone in affecting how we perceive creative pieces of work? What do we consider real, and what do we consider as “generated”? Where do we draw the line? I feel like these conversations should be had, especially now that we are at a point where artificial intelligence is at its peak and there are so many advancements being made every month.